Ms. Hen reviews Riding the Bus with My Sister

Riding the Bus with My Sister

Rachel Simon

Penguin Books

2002

Ms. Hen read this book because she found it at the Little Free Library right near where she lives. She had never heard of the book or the author, but she liked the title and the cover. She thought it might have been a young adult book, but it’s not. She decided to pick it up because it was free, and there was no loss if she did.

This memoir is the story of Rachel and her sister Beth, who has mental retardation. They are eleven months apart, and for one month a year, they are twins. The family has had a difficult time deciding what to do with Beth. She rides the busses in her small Pennsylvania town all day, and she knows all the drivers and routes and times the busses will arrive. Rachel decides to ride the busses with Beth for once a month for a year to discover what Beth is doing and also to write about it.

This book also goes back in time to tell the story of Rachel and Beth’s family life when they were young. They had a difficult time in childhood when their mother and father divorced and went separate ways. Rachel thought her mother suffered from depression, and their mother put Beth in danger. But Beth survived.

Ms. Hen found this book emotional. The stories of the bus drivers and how most of them try to help Beth by teaching her about life and telling her their own stories brought Ms. Hen to tears at times. She reads a lot in public, on the train, and at her break at lunch, and she found herself with tears running down her face as she read this book. She was embarrassed, but she didn’t think anyone noticed. This doesn’t happen often. Ms. Hen does cry sometimes at the end of a book, but not usually in the middle.

This is not the typical book that Ms. Hen would read. It’s a nice book. Ms. Hen doesn’t usually read nice things. She usually likes angst driven novels about people with dire problems, like mental illness, or she reads dystopian novels. But this is about a woman whose sister has mental retardation. It’s about learning to have patience, and learning to love someone she can’t completely understand. It’s also about the author changing her worldview, and her view of herself, and transforming her life.

One aspect of this memoir Ms. Hen enjoyed was the writing, which is high quality. Ms. Simon knows how to put words together, and Ms. Hen enjoys a well-written book. Ms. Hen thinks this might be considered a book club book, but she doesn’t hold that against it.

Ms. Hen recommends this memoir to anyone who wants to feel better about the world. The bus drivers help Beth and her sister to see the bigger picture. This book teaches the readers to appreciate what we have, and not take anything for granted. And also to not be afraid of change.